Drecko

Drecko is a critter found in the Caustic Biome. They are a renewable source of Phosphorite, which makes them important for Wheezeworts maintenance and Fertilizer production. When domesticated they produce Reed Fiber, Plastic, and Drecko Eggs. They may also be killed for meat.

Behavior
This creature can be found crawling around in cavities in the Caustic Biome. They are able to cling strongly to any surface, and will freely wander the full perimeter of whatever chamber they are in. They are not hostile and are quite mobile, inevitably wandering away from any chamber they are not trapped in.

It will fight back when attacked, but is no match for even an unskilled Duplicant. It drops 3200 kcal (2 kg) of Meat on death.

Dreckos gain 1 hunger every second, and will try to eat when their hunger exceeds 600. They eat Pincha Pepperplant, Balm Lily, and Mealwood. The glossy variants eat Mealwood and Bristle Berry. Unlike other critters, they consume the growing plant and reduce its growth rate; each feeding will reduce the plant by 25 percentage points of growth, and thus Dreckos cannot feed before the plant has reached at least 25% growth. They will not eat the harvested final products of these plants. Once it has consumed a meal, it will defecate Phosphorite within a cycle.

Regular Dreckos have a default bodily temperature of 62.5°C at birth, similar to the temperature of their native Biome. Glossy Dreckos, however, spawn at 42.5°C. They slowly cool to the environmental temperature with time. Such characteristics can be observed in Temperature overlay and Status tab. Caution in temperature regulation needs to be taken when ranching dreckos in Mealwood farm since it will slowly heats all up above 30°C, halting Mealwood growth.

Breeding
Drecko eggs have a base incubation rate of 3% per cycle. When put in a powered incubator, their incubating rate is increased to 17%. An incubated Drecklet will mature into a Drecko after 5 cycles.

Variants
The Drecko has two variants, each with its own varied diet preferences. Along with the plain Drecko, there is also the Glossy Drecko.

Drecko
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Glossy Drecko
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A Drecko fed primarily Mealwood will have a chance of producing a Glossy Drecko Egg, with a larger chance given a higher volume of Mealwood consumed. The Glossy Drecko shares the same behavior of the Drecko, but when sheared produces Plastic instead of Reed Fiber.

Drecko Ranching
Drecko are finicky critters to domesticate in a fully productive way, due to their mixed environment preferences. They live 150 cycles, but reproduce fairly slowly. They need access to growing Pincha Pepper, Balm Lily or Mealwood plant to satisfy their dietary requirements and produce Phosphorite. They only produce Reed Fiber or Plastic when in a Hydrogen atmosphere. When tame they regenerate their "wool" at a rate that allows harvest once roughly every 8 cycles for Drecko or 3 cycles for Glossy Drecko, provided they are completely immersed in hydrogen for the entire duration.

Reed Fiber farm
The goal of this setup is to produce Reed Fiber with plain Drecko. This is quite helpful in Arboria Asteroid and The Badlands Asteroid where Swamp Biome is missing.

Build a stable room of three layers. The bottom layer is filled with Chlorine to grow Balm Lily, as it does not require maintenance once planted. The middle layer is filled with Oxygen for Duplicants' convenience to work with the Grooming Station and Shearing Station. The top layer is filled with Hydrogen for Dreckos to grow Reed Fiber scales. With this setup, Dreckos can eat Balm Lily in the bottom layer, and grow Reed Fiber scale when they move to the top layer. Duplicants can tame the Drecko and shear the scales in the middle layer.

It also possible to completely seal the room with a liquid lock and provide Atmo Suit access, in which case an oxygen layer is not necessary. This also means the Dreckos spend potentially more time in hydrogen.

Alternatively, Pincha Pepper can be grown in a room completely flooded with hydrogen. It requires Phosphorite for fertilization, which the Dreckos supply. However, it also needs a constant supply of polluted water.

Either plant may require some initial heating of the atmosphere in order to satisfy their temperature requirement. It is thus best to build the outer walls out of Insulated Tile.

Plastic farm
The goal of this setup is to produce Plastic with Glossy Drecko. Compared with Polymer Press, this approach is more energy efficient and produces less heat. It can also be achieved relatively early, long before access to the Oil Biome.

Build a room with hydrogen on top and oxygen at the bottom. Grow roughly a dozen Mealwood plants in the oxygen, which also allows a ranching Dupe to breathe. Starting with regular Drecko, the Mealwood diet ensures that they eventually lay Glossy Drecko eggs. Regular Drecko may later be moved to their own specialized stable.

To create the required atmosphere, hydrogen can be released at the bottom of the base and allowed to drift upwards into the Drecko stable. To supply a more measured amount without gas piping, the Canister Filler and Emptier may be used to transport hydrogen from far away. Enough hydrogen supplied this way will ensure a stable top layer even at maximum oxygen pressure from below. A completely sealed room is thus not required.

An Incubator can be placed in the hydrogen layer and cooled with a Wheezewort next to it if the temperature it gives off threatens the Mealwood growth.

A half dozen Glossy Drecko will produce roughly 1 ton of Plastic every 10 cycles with such a setup, along with several tons of Phosphorite and multiple eggs. This can be a sustainable alternative in obtaining plastic in the mid to late game.

The excess of plastic produced this way can also be converted into Natural Gas by melting and re-cooling it at the later stages of the game. One stable of Glossy Drecko can produce ~250 kg plastic/cycle if sheared regularly. It would be enough to power 3 Natural Gas Generators with 100% uptime (2.4 kW of power).

Phosphorite farm
If the shearing is not a priority the setup can be simplified to a chlorine pit with domesticated Balm Lilies, where all wild Dreckos get dumped. The maps usually have enough of them to generate abundant stream of phosphorite.

Auto-surplus method
Another method of farming fiber/plastic without a hydrogen filled-room is to make use of the auto-surplus wrangling and Incubator system. Since newborn drecklets have their scales fully grown, they can be sheared as soon as they become adults and then moved to another location for culling with the auto-surplus function.

A 96 tiles room will have a limit of 8 dreckos including egg count before the crowded penalty kicks in.

This setup can benefit from automation with timers for scheduling and Drowning chamber to free up duplicants from mass slaughter.

Starving method
Since Drecko's don't require food for their wool to grow, you can let them starve to death in a hydrogen filled room. Their life will be prolonged if they are not groomed due to the metabolism penalty. They will reach an age of 37 cycles before dying, in which you can shave Drecko's 4 times and the glossy variant 11 times.

This method is not sustainable without an additional source of Drecko eggs.

History
Дреккон